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Around Town

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May 11, 2023 - Center Garden Club met on Wednesday, May 10 at the AgriLife Ext. office in Center. Pam Sykes and Sandy Prislac were our hostesses opened with prayer and reciting the Pledge of Allegiance. The program was about table settings. Pam Sykes shared some of her expertise on how to properly set a table for plant show competitions or entertaining at home. We all learned some usual tips on how to properly set a table. The members of CGC would like to thank the AgriLife crew for always being so gracious in allowing us to hold some meetings there.

This will be our last meeting for the season. The next few months we will be hibernating due to the miserable East Texas heat. However,we will be celebrating National Garden Week with a mini plant show on June 5-9 at Farmers State Bank. Please stop by Farmers State Bank and see our mini plant show. 

For more information about the Center Garden Club please email Marsha Ann at studioonthenine@yahoo.com 

New Officers: Carol Ann Chance-Club President and Marsha Ann Barnett-Club Secretary

May 10, 2023 - Mimi’s Plant Nursery celebrated with a ribbon cutting event on Thursday, May 4, 2023, hosted by the Shelby County Chamber of Commerce Ambassadors.

Shelby County Chamber of Commerce President Deborah Chadwick introduced Melissa Evans, owner of Mimi’s Plant Nursery, and invited her to share about her business.

“Welcome Melissa and Mimi’s Nursery to the Chamber of Commerce family and we’re really, really excited,” said Chadwick.

Evans worked at Joaquin ISD for 16 years and said she was ready to make a change when she started Mimi’s Plant Nursery with the help of her husband, Gary Evans.

“I started three seasons ago, we started with just the little green house,” said Evans. 

Evans said they started with a little green house, $1,200 and filled up the green house with plant life.

“Everything that I’ve needed has fallen in my hands, it’s like God said ‘here you go,’” said Evans.

She said she is happy now, doing what she loves and the people who come to see her are there because they want to be. She explained she enjoys meeting and talking with customers and she’s thankful to be there and is looking forward to the business continuing to grow.

Mimi’s Plant Nursery’s normal business hours are Thursday through Saturday from 9am until 5pm and she can put together custom planted pots. Customers can bring their own pots, or there are sometimes pots available to choose from.

Mimi’s Plant Nursery is located at 9334 Highway 7 E in Joaquin and can be reached by calling 936-590-1171.


From left: Garden Club members Judy Matthews, Pam Sykes, Janette Wittmann, Carole Ann Chance, Marsha Barnett, Carolyn Bounds, and Cherry Jones.

May 10, 2023 - Center Garden Club members celebrated National Arbor Day a bit early this year on April 14th by purchasing a redbud tree for planting on the Community House grounds.

The club thanks member Marsha Barnett and her husband Billy for actually planting the redbud. The last Friday in April is designated as National Arbor Day while Texas Arbor Day is set for the first Friday in November.

Center Garden Club plants trees in both November and April annually and urges everyone to plant and nurture trees in celebration of the myriad of ways trees enrich our lives.

May 9, 2023 - Shelby County Aggie Moms would like to congratulate our Spring 2023 Texas A&M Graduates.

They are:

  • Jodi Blount, Bachelor of Science, Allied Health, (2019 Graduate of Chireno HS)
  • Sam McSwain, Bachelor of Science in Kinesiology (2019 Graduate of Center HS)
  • Sadie Ramsey, Bachelor of Business Administration in Management (2020 Graduate of Timpson HS)

We are proud of our Aggies and wish them all the best!

Graduations will be held in College Station, Texas, May 11 and May 12, 2023. Whoop and Gig’EM

May 8, 2023 - Many Shelby County residents and visitors were presented the opportunity to time travel a little bit, as a retake of a photo from 1923 was done on Friday, May 5, 2023.

Participants in the photo event mostly staged at the inside corner just across from the Rio Theatre where photographer Lawrence Davis climbed a tall ladder to get the shot.

Buster Bounds was also taking an aerial view of the proceedings with a drone camera.

Native to Center and son to the late Joe Louis Jones (former Shelby County Historical Courthouse docent, and historian), Ben Jones and his wife Michelle, had seen on Shelby County Today that the photo was being taken and traveled from College Station to participate in this event. They remarked May 4 was his father’s birthday.

Once the photo was completed, the crowd dispersed and the regular hustle and bustle of traffic on the square continued.

Print availability will tentatively be announced a week from the publication of this article.

Related articleCenter Square Photo’s 100th Anniversary; Retake May 5th

May 8, 2023 - Shred Day is scheduled for this Friday, May 12th from 10:00am until 2:00pm. The Shredding truck will be on the downtown square in front of the Chamber offices.

The Shredding service is provided free to the public as a service of the Shelby County Beautiful Clean program of the Shelby County Chamber of Commerce and our generous Presenting Sponsor, Republic Services and our generous Gold Sponsor, Farmers State Bank.

For more information please contact the Shelby County Chamber of Commerce at (936) 598-3682 or info@shelbycountychamber.com.

May 5, 2023 - The Fannie Brown Booth Library staff would like to thank all of the Friends of the Library who worked with the Spring Book Sale.  Some worked with set up of the sale. Some worked during the sale.  Some worked with breakdown of the sale.  Some took part in all of it. Please know that all of you and your hard work are deeply appreciated. We would also like to thank the ones that attended the book sale and purchased books.  We hope you found a treasure, whether it be an old favorite or a new favorite author. The money raised from the Book Sale will be used to purchase new books for the Library. Again, we thank you for your part in making our Spring Book Sale a success.

May 3, 2023 - Most of you have seen the old picture of the downtown square – the one with the oxen and horses on the flat and unpaved square with a fence around the Courthouse lawn instead of the step-up we have today. It was taken on May 5, 1923 by local photographer Roy R. Loving.

On May 5, 2023 a photo will be taken in honor of the photo’s 100th Anniversary. We would love for everyone to be on the square and in the picture. The photo will be taken around 2:00pm on Friday, May 5th. It will be a fun comparison to the changes on the square in the past 100 years. More information will be available at a later date.

Below is the article written about the event, published on May 9, 1923 in The Champion.

“A four-up ox team appeared on the streets here Saturday and it created more attention than anything else in town. Horses were hard to get to pass the team as it stood on the street and the general citizenship inspected them. It was noticeable that the horses were afraid of the oxen and cared nothing for the many automobiles around them. This is a reverse of conditions of only a few years ago.

"While the ox team was “parked” on the square Photographer Loving took a street scene picture with the ox team, a Cadillac touring car and Federal Truck parked with the team. This picture will be printed in this paper at a later date, also a picture of a street scene in Center 19 years ago. The ox team here referred to belongs to Mr. McDaniel, north of town, and he has two of the four-up teams. There only a few teams in the county at this time and the only thing that they are used for is logging and that only in sections where it is hard to get mule teams in the woods.”

Thank you to J.J. Ford for finding the above article.

It was during this time that Mr. H.B. Johnson (the Chamber’s first Chairman of the Board) was responsible for passing two major bonds, one of which was used for paving the streets around the square and to extend the pavement down the main streets leading into the square. The streets were paved a year or so after the picture was taken.

It was the task of the Chamber to get all the stores in Center to close in order for the male employees to work on the road projects. At that time, roads into town were “pretty bad” and not maintained. All males over the age of 21 years, were required to give five days a year working on the roads, or hire someone to take his place.

Electric lights were also introduced around this time period.

May 3, 2023 - Morrison Insurance Agency in Center celebrated their 100th anniversary on April 28, 2023.

Shelby county Chamber of Commerce Ambassadors and community members were at the location to join in on the festivities.

Tem Morrison, Morrison Insurance Agency, addressed those in attendance giving all the credit to the businesses customers and naming members of the staff.

“Couldn’t have made this without our customers, they’re the ones that deserve credit,” said Morrison. “The staff that we’ve had, various people, but now we’ve got JoLynn Fountain, Monica Watson, Connie Morrison. They’re our current staff, doing a great job. So, I’d like to thank everybody for coming out.”

Deborah Chadwick, Shelby County Chamber of Commerce President, presented Morrison with a crystal award commemorating the 100th anniversary of the business.

Related article100th Anniversary Celebration Morrison Insurance Agency

May 2, 2023 - Some of the holidays we celebrate honor great Americans, while others recognize great moments in our history. But this one “Loyalty Day” celebrates everything, from the moment we delivered our Declaration of Independence to the British, to the moment we gathered on the Center square May 1, 2023.
This article is copied from Shelby County Today without permission.
Loyalty Day is a celebration of America and everything our country stands for. Loyalty Day asks us to pause for a moment and look back at where we’ve been, and ahead to where we want our nation to go.
This article is copied from Shelby County Today without permission.
Originally observed as “Americanization Day” in 1921 and enacted into public law by congress in 1958, loyalty day celebrates the legacy of freedom and the shared ideals that bind our great nation together. While initially established to counterbalance the May 1 celebrations of the communist party in the United States, this day has endured as a permanent fixture on America’s calendar.
This article is copied from Shelby County Today without permission.
Even as the communist threat has greatly diminished over the years but perhaps is being revitalized, Loyalty Day remains a day worth recognizing.
This article is copied from Shelby County Today without permission.
On Loyalty Day, we must remind others and ourselves that there is no substitute for loyalty, and we must pledge to maintain a free society in which loyalty is respected and encouraged.

Loyalty Day is a day set aside for the reaffirmation of Loyalty to the United States and for the recognition of the heritage of American freedoms.
This article is copied from Shelby County Today without permission.
Post Commander Richard Lundie placed our Loyalty Day wreath to display for all to see on the Shelby County Veterans Memorial.
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What American freedoms are you thankful for? 

I am thankful that we can gather in a group without fear of reprisal. We can voice our opinions among our fellow citizens. I am even more thankful that every time our VFW and auxiliary visit, we will always find a group of loyal Americans.
This article is copied from Shelby County Today without permission.
Loyalty Day is not an official holiday but rather an observance that many are unaware of and would have gone unnoticed in Shelby County if it were not for those gathered on the square.
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Center Mayor pro tem Leigh Porterfield closed the program with the singing of “God Bless America.”

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